Something That Happened
by 0Twisted-Symphony6
Summary: They were never planned. It's not like they ever really expected it. His cocky attitude and Mohawk drove her crazy, but despite it all, she loved him. The two of them together were just something that happened. Quinn/Puck. Drabble-length chapters.
1. Age 6

Something That Happened 1

Their story begins on a morning in August. It is the first day of first grade—the perfect time for a beginning.

He is six years old and she prides herself on being six_ and a half_. She's bigger than he is, but that doesn't stop him from pushing out his arms and knocking her into the sandbox (because she's a girl, and boys are way better than girls). There's a tiny scratch on her knee and her once pristine, white dress is no longer so.

This is their first encounter (of many).

She does not cry, but instead kicks him in the shin with her expensive polished shoes, mutters an "I hate you," and runs off to find her friends.

He finds her intriguing. And while all the other boys think that girls have cooties, he is beginning to realize that girls may not be as bad as they make them out to be.

So every day, he trips her or pushes her down. And every day she kicks him, but never cries or tells the teacher. And eventually he trips her just so he can help her up because (even though everyone else thinks it's gross) he likes the feel of her hand in his.

When she starts to smile at him from across the classroom, he can no longer concentrate on his work. This day he doesn't bother tripping her to try to hold her hand.

They talk and slowly become best friends. She kisses him on the cheek  
and he tries to kiss her lips. She giggles and turns away because she knows that her daddy wouldn't like that.

She finds out that he's Jewish and makes it a point not to tell her daddy because she really likes him and she doesn't want to risk losing what they have. But by now she's six (and three quarters) and secrets spill like milk from the innocent little girl and the next thing she knows, her daddy is _suggesting_ she not play with her best friend anymore (she hears him tell her mommy that he's a bad influence on her). By six (and three quarters), she is well aware that daddy's _suggestions_ are actually orders.

Reluctantly, she begins to ignore her best friend. He tries to hide his sadness, but by this point, she knows him too well. The easiest way to forget about their friendship is to start kicking him again. So he trips her every day and she kicks him in the shin.

Soon, she's befriended two girls she knows from her church (although they only come on select holidays), and he has found a dopey-looking friend who looks like a tree compared to the rest of their grade.

They drift apart and she pretends that she never really cared about him and he does the same.

Puck and Quinn never did make sense anyway. 


	2. Age 8

Thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter. I hope some of you who put this on alert review this time. Just know this: I have this entire story written. The more reviews I get, the more inspired I will be to give you another chapter sooner.

Something That Happened 2

She's 8 when her parents decide she should be a cheerleader (her older sister is head cheerleader at her high school) and she finds that it isn't the worst thing her parents could force her to do.

But the Junior Cheerios cheer for the Junior football team and a certain boy from her past is the star of the team. He takes off his helmet after a touchdown and she sees he is now sporting a buzz-cut Mohawk.

She thinks he looks pretty ridiculous but kind of cute at the same time, so she hides her smile behind her pompom.

His eyes catch hers and they stare for just a moment before they realize they're supposed to hate each other. It is the persona they've adopted in the last two years because it is the easiest way to deal with how much they miss each other.

The two tear their eyes away from each other and continue on doing what they're there to do.

After the game, he walks up to her and she pretends for just a moment that they're best friends again.

"You look like a freak up there cheering those silly cheers," he tells her.

It stings, but she knows this is the only glimpse of a relationship they have left at this point.

"Yeah, well you look like you fell asleep while shaving your head, idiot."

He's about to make a comeback when her parents walk up from behind her. They give him a look, one that he gets from parents all the time. He may only be 8 years old, but he already has a reputation. He's the boy who throws rocks at the younger kids and broke a window in the gym.

He has no idea that her parents are the reason they now hate each other. He only knows that his best friend abandoned him and he hates that he misses her so much.

When her parents aren't looking, she sticks her tongue out at him and his foot slyly lands in front of her leg to trip her. Her parents continue walking and don't even notice; by the time she recovers, she turns around and he's gone.

She sighs and thinks that this hating each other thing is hard work.

He frowns as he walks away because he wishes he had answers. Why did she abandon him? And does she miss him as much as he misses her?

He wishes that maybe, someday, they might find a way to be friends again.

But instead he becomes more and more cynical, pushing people away.

Because, after his father and then Quinn walking away, Puck can't lose anyone else.


	3. Age 11

Thank you to those of you who reviewed last chapter! I got more reviews than the firs chapter & I appreciate that. :) Here's an update for you:

Something That Happened 3

By 11, they think about each other less. They're in sixth grade, their first year of middle school. They no longer have to worry about being placed next to each other on the seating chart because she's in all the High Achievers classes and he's barely passing the normal ones.

Being in the lowest grade at the school, she starts as the lowest on the totem pole called school, but within weeks, she is the Queen Bee. Even the eighth graders respect her. The entire school knows who she is.

Of course, they know him too. He's the kid who tried to steal the principal's car. The eleven-year-old boy is already badass.

She is perfect and he is anything but. They haven't changed much since they were six.

But they have.

The Queen Bee is actually Queen B, which is short for Queen Bitch. She's angelic in her parents' eyes, but the entire school knows otherwise.

They've always been a lot alike. They both terrorize the freaks, but she's a verbal bully while he's a physical one.

She secretly thinks she does it because she feels alone. She hasn't had a true best friend since him. The social hierarchy doesn't particularly allow for best friends. It's a dog-eat-dog system.

He thinks he does it because it's funny (but he knows that's not the reason. He wants to believe he's just that bad ass—that he does it merely for the entertainment—but in all honesty, it's because he wants to make others feel the pain he has felt, whether it be physical or emotional [but that girly crap doesn't fly with him so he tries to block that reasoning out of his mind]).

There are no insults, no tripping, no interaction whatsoever between the two of them. They avoid eye contact at all costs.

It has never gotten less awkward, even after five years.

She still cheers for the football team he plays on but she always diverts her eyes from him. He knows she isn't looking, so from underneath his helmet, he looks up at her in her pretty blonde pony tail and pretends they're six again, when nothing else matters but the fact that he liked the way her hand felt in his.

But both Puck and Quinn know that first grade is a simple time and life never stays simple, no matter how much you want it to.


	4. Age 13

I got so many reviews last chapter compared to the last two! It made me uber happy. :D This one is really short (aren't they all?) but I like it. I think it kind of sets up a bit of where their characters are as people at the beginning of the show. It explains a bit more of their personality, I guess. :)

Oh! And I've been wanting to mention but kept forgetting: Thank you to John Steinbeck for this title. :D I read a biography about him and apparently it was his orignal title for Grapes of Wrath and I absolutely loved the simplicity of it yet it seemed to hold so much power. I'm actually pretty sure this idea spawned from that title because VERY shortly after I decided it was my next story title, I started writing this. :)

Something That Happened 4

13 rolls around and she's the Queen of the Chastity Ball while he's getting suspended for having sex in the girls' bathroom.

It's 8th grade, and they have 4 months left of the school year. She's ready to be in high school because it's one year closer to her getting out of the hick town they live in. High school to him is one year closer to officially being dubbed a Lima loser.

She doesn't believe for a second that she's going to stay in Ohio and he has no doubts that he will be in this crappy town ten years from now.

They've grown up and become less naive and they finally see Lima for what it is: a vortex of suck that you either escape from immediately after high school or fall into for the rest of your life. Nobody stays in Lima willingly.

13 brings cynicism for the both of them.

His mom goes into rehab for alcoholism for the third time since his birthday in July. He's forced to take care of his 5-year-old sister alone while his mom is gone and he realizes that he's got a pretty fucked up life.

Her parents are still together but they don't do a very good job hiding the fact that her dad sleeps in the guest bedroom (he even has his clothes in the dresser). She knows know that their marriage is an act (of obedience, perhaps. Her mom is like a desperate puppy when it comes to her dad. They hate each other but they're too attached to the idea of marriage and their need to make everything in their life look absolutely perfect). She is forced to be perfect as well—daddy's little angel, he gloats to all his friends at the country club. Too bad her parents are too blind to see how unhappy she truly is.

They haven't spoken a word to each other since they were 11, and Quinn may be the angel to Puck's devil, but they're more alike than anyone would think.


	5. Age 15

This one is uber short. But that's mainly because the next one is age 16 and is pretty long (in comparison). There's a very small time gap between this one and the next two so that's why I'm allowed to make this so short. I might post the next one tonight too just because I'm excited for 16. ;)

Something That Happened 5

She starts dating the best friend the size of a tree when they're 15. He starts slushying the Broadway singer freak that year as well.

For the first time in years, they're forced to acknowledge each other's existence because he and her boyfriend are basically a package deal.

She starts the Chastity Club, although she knows the members aren't all virgins, and those who are, aren't so by choice.

He's the biggest man whore she knows, but he's one of the first to join the club. She assumes it's to get into the pants of the other girls.

In all truthfulness, he's there because his best friend is there—with her. And, yes, dammit, he's jealous. He had her first. Sure, they were only six, and they've spoken but a handful of words to each other since then, but she's his girl.

She hates that she can't help but wonder what it'd be like if she was with him instead of his best friend.

They know that it is now way too late to reconcile any problems that began nine years ago.

Now Quinn may be smart and Puck does have some common sense, but they have no idea how wrong they are.


	6. Age 16

I really wanted to post this...so even though I technically didn't get any reviews yet for this chapter (I've gotten _A_ review since I posted it, but it was for chapter three - plus it's only been like 2-3 hours), I'm gonna post this.

Something That Happened 6

10 years have passed since their story first began, and this is where it gets interesting. At 16, she's the youngest head cheerleader the school has ever had and the coach's absolute prodigy.

But when she does her weekly weigh-in, she's 3 pounds heavier than the week before and the coach tells her she needs to slim her fat ass up.

His football coach is a total douche and he can't bother to go to practice. Instead, he stands outside the 7-11 until someone buys him alcohol. Unfortunately, what he gets is some girly wine cooler crap, which doesn't have enough alcohol in it to hardly even count.

Across the street from the 7-11, he can see into the school parking lot where there is one car left. It's hers. He walks over and notices that she's crying.

A 6-pack of wine coolers and a sob story later, they reunite in the closest way possible, right in the back seat of her car. She tells him this can't mean anything because she has a boyfriend, his best friend. They both decide to pretend it never happened.

Two months later his best friend tells him she's pregnant by some dumb ass hyper speed spa sperm, which makes absolutely no sense.

He confronts her and she tells him he's nothing but what he expected to be since he was 13: a Lima loser.

When he was 6, he thought he would marry her someday. Of course, he's badass now, and if she's not gonna give it up to him again, why even bother with her anymore? But he still wants to be in his kid's life.

They may have hated each other for years but she knows that she doesn't want to lose him again. She thinks that maybe this is their opportunity.

But she realizes that he must not see it that way because he'd rather be sexting than taking their first experience with children seriously (little does she know that since their friendship ended, his mom had another baby, a little sister, whom he practically raised).

When her boyfriend finally finds out that it's not his baby, she won't even let him help her.

He doesn't want to be his father.

The months in her pregnancy pass and he tries his hardest to be apart of it.

She's always been independent. Even now that the truth is all out, she finds it difficult to rely on him. She acknowledges that he's trying, but she's just not ready.

She doesn't decide she's ready until months later, when the contractions begin and she realizes that she's scared out of her fucking mind. She has no idea what to do—she can't be a mother yet!—and (though she's only on her first contraction) she can tell this birthing thing is gonna hurt a hell of a lot more than she could have ever imagined (and she imagined it hurting pretty fucking badly).

She calls him as soon as she can manage to move herself toward the phone and he's there to pick her up immediately.

Twelve hours later they hear screams as their daughter comes into the world and a new story begins. The nurses clean the baby off and pass her to her proud parents.

He asks what she's decided. He smiles when she tells him she's keeping the baby. She has to, she says, especially now that she's seen her gorgeous daughter.

He thinks that maybe this was the thing they needed.

Quinn and Puck think that maybe Beth is the glue of their relationship that will piece them back together after so many years, but what they don't think about is that glue is not a permanent fix.


	7. Age 17

I only got two reviews for the last chapter and the second one I got right after I decided I should update :( Oh, well, I don't have the highest of expectations as far as number of reviews goes. Anyway...well, we're a little more than half way through. There are 10 chapters plus an "epilogue."

Something That Happened 7

She's 17 when she drops out of high school, unable to juggle her daughter, school, and a part-time job. He works the maximum hours a minor can work and still goes to school, hardly seeing his daughter.

They're together, if you can even really call it that.

They have a crappy one-bedroom apartment together and they see each other for approximately fifteen minutes a day. They call themselves a family, but the time they do manage to spend together is rarely without a fight about money or school or jobs.

She doesn't like the way they live, the fact that he is missing almost every aspect of his daughter's infanthood, but it is the way they have to be. She tells herself that it's for the best and her daughter won't even remember this time anyway.

He hopes that soon they will be able to get a better place and they won't have to live paycheck to paycheck and that he won't miss too much of his baby girl's life before this happens.

They both know, however, that with his poor grades and her lack of a finished high school education, they could very well be living this way for a long time.

When she's alone at night, she often cries herself to sleep. She had always planned on getting out of this crap town, but now she knew that the chances of that were slim to none.

He comes home at night and she's already asleep. The baby is sleeping peacefully as well. He thinks about how different their life would be if they never kept the baby, or she never got pregnant, or if they had never even met.

He crawls into bed next to her and kisses her temple. She moves slightly but doesn't wake. All those years ago, when he pictured the two of them reuniting, he never thought it would end up like this.

They hate each other.

That hasn't changed. The only difference is now instead of not knowing why they hate each other, they have a reason. She blames him for her being stuck in Lima and he hates her because he has to work as much as he does.

The glue of their relationship is anything but so. The baby has brought them together physically but pulled them away from each other emotionally.

She considers leaving him—whether or not she would bring the baby, she's not sure—but she knows she has nowhere else to go. By now, they're together only as a necessity.

She thinks that this "family" is too much like her own—only staying together for looks, rather than love.

Quinn and Puck may not be perfect parents, but they both know that they cannot continue to raise Beth this way because in the long run, it'll only hurt, not help, her.

Edit: I reposted this chapter because I was reading through and realized I forgot to change the name I originally used (Ava) to the name they used on the show (Beth). I wrote it before Puck came up with Beth but then I wanted to change it so I had this chapter saying Ava and the one before it said Beth.


	8. Age 19

This chapter is a bit of a turning point in their relationship. I hope you guys like it. :)

Something That Happened 8

By the time they're 19, she's saved up enough money (unbeknownst to him) to get a separate apartment. Her daughter is 2 1/2 years old but doesn't even realize the difference because she isn't used to seeing her daddy anyway.

He's furious that she would take his daughter away from him, even though they both know that their life before was much too hostile to raise their daughter in. She points out that he sees her almost the same amount as he did before.

They have an intense staring match and she thinks about how much she HATES his Mohawk (how has he not gotten past that hair style?) and how when they're not fighting, everything that comes out of his mouth is cocky. He considers her overbearing control freak personality and how she can do nothing but complain, even after he works his ass off daily.

And then he thinks about her soft blonde hair and she can't help but remember the way his lips feel against hers and the next thing they know, they've gone from screaming their heads off to being sprawled out naked together on her bed.

(She thinks this is how they've managed to work for as long as they have.)

Their family (if you can even really call it that) is so messed up but they soon find that this works for them.

Them not living together is the best thing that could have happened to their daughter. The hostility is gone and they find that when they _do_ manage to find time to be together, they're nothing but happy.

(The awesome sex probably helps that.)

Their daughter begins to get used to the dynamic they have and it doesn't seem to be a coincidence that even she seems to scream and cry less.

This is when they realize for the first time that maybe there is no right way to live, love, and raise a family. Not for everyone at least.

Because Quinn and Puck are pretty sure that, even if this isn't textbook right, what they're doing is right for _their_ family.


	9. Age 21

A/N: Wow. So, sorry about the wait. I kinda forgot to update. Haha. Well, here ya go! :D

Something That Happened 9

Their daughter starts preschool when they're about 21 and of course all the other parents look at them oddly. This isn't new to them—been happening for 4 years.

But when their daughter makes a new friend and she begins to ask why her mommy and daddy don't live together like her friend's mommy and daddy do, they really begin to understand just how different she will grow up with the life they lead now.

They're scared to go back to what they had before. They've been happy for the last year and a half—happier than either of them can ever remember being. They know that their daughter is missing out and is going to start asking more and more questions. What they don't know, however, is whether they can deal with living together again.

(Money and time management are better now since he got promoted to manager at the grocery store and only has to work one job, but they don't know if those are the only issues between them.)

After weeks of contemplating, they finally decide that moving back in together is what's best for their daughter. The little girl is ecstatic.

They soon find that this situation isn't as bad as it used to be. It's not as stressful this time around and they can actually continue to have sex, and unlike before, it isn't just intensity and heat, but rather something verging on love.

They're both pretty sure this is the first time they've truly felt this before.

They're happier—even happier than when they were sleeping together but not living together.

Their daughter seems to notice their genuine smiles.

They really feel like a family now.

She notices that her breath hitches when she sees him, something it has never done before, and she wonders if maybe this is true love.

He realizes that he's come to live for her smile, and if it isn't present, he isn't happy.

Love has never been something that Puck and Quinn have particularly had any understanding about, but now they think that they might finally have some.


	10. Age 23

A/N: Last real chapter! One more uber short epilogue type thing after this! It should be up later today!

Something That Happened 10

They're 23 when she thinks she may be pregnant again. She's scared out of her mind. They've lived together again for two years now and have had sex almost every night, but they still have been too afraid to truly define their relationship.

She tells him about the possible pregnancy, afraid that he'll be mad,  
but she's shocked when he hugs her.

He's thought about it recently but hasn't said anything—having more kids that is. So when she tells him that she may be pregnant again, he's excited.

Seeing his excitement, she becomes extremely happy as well.

But then she takes a test and finds out that she isn't pregnant and she's afraid this time that he'll be upset that they _aren't_ having another baby.

He isn't upset though; at least he doesn't show it. He actually is grinning like a little boy.

Considering they don't even refer to themselves as boyfriend and girlfriend (they're undefined, remember?), she's shocked when two months after they find out she isn't pregnant, he gets down on one knee and proposes.

The words fall out of her mouth before she even remembers thinking them. She's scared shitless but she practically throws herself at him while she screams the word "yes" over and over.

Their daughter stands watching the scene and seems to know that this means their family is actually going to be like her friends' families from now on.

(After they put their daughter to bed, they make the most passionate love they've ever made. They think that it is so wonderful because they finally know exactly what they are to each other—and it's not 'lovers' or 'baby mama/daddy.')

(Little do they know at this moment that soon they'll find out that they are going to have another baby.)

They get married three months later before she starts showing and their daughter is the flower girl. Not many people attend the wedding, but they know that those who are there are the ones most special to them.

(Her parents don't attend because, almost 7 years later, they have still not forgiven her for what they consider her "mistake." She would never call her daughter a mistake.)

5 months later their son is born.

When Quinn lies in the hospital bed with Puck next to her holding Beth in his lap and their newborn son Zachary Noah Puckerman, she feels like this is the family she always dreamed she would have, even if they had to take a few detours to arrive at this destination.


	11. Epilogue

A/N: So here's the end! :( It's very short but i like it a lot and I hope you do too!

Something That Happened 11

It's hard to say where their story ends, because the truth is, it doesn't.

They may not have had a clichéd, perfect beginning, but after a few years of anger, pain, and difficulty, they finally stumbled into their storybook ending.

(Or storybook beginning, one might call it. Because where this particular story ends is truly where the rest of their story begins.)

They had to work hard to find their fairytale, but these two are proof that happiness always lies ahead for you, even if you have to tread through tough times to find it.

Quinn and Puck never expected this outcome (nowhere near it); the two of them together, their family, their life, were all just something that happened.


End file.
